If we can ever get an SMD controller going, the best way would be to also have it be soldered by the pcb fab. With pick-and-place machines, stencils, and reflow soldering, the cost increase for assembly is marginal for every SMD component added.
One could definitely hand solder SMD with a bit of practice and a decent iron, but that gets very tricky with no lead (QFN and such) packages, where essentially the only way to hand solder them is via hot air. A lot of ICs still have lead options in package selections, though, which is good. In any case, as with anything involving SMD, bulk pcb fab assembly would be the primary goal once a prototype from them is validated, of course.